DNA of ancient Canaanites lives on in modern-day Lebanese

[de officiis]

The DNA of ancient Canaanites lives on in modern-day Lebanese, genetic analysis shows

The Canaanites lived at the crossroads of the ancient world. They experienced wars, conquests and occupations for millennia, and as a result evolutionary geneticists expected that their DNA would become substantially mixed with incoming populations.

Astonishingly, new genetic analysis shows that scientists were wrong. According to a new study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, today’s Lebanese share a whopping 93% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites.

The study also found that the Bronze Age inhabitants of Sidon, a major Canaanite city-state in modern-day Lebanon, have the same genetic profile as people living 300 to 800 years earlier in present-day Jordan.

Later known as Phoenicians, the Canaanites have a murky past. Nearly all of their own records have been destroyed over the centuries, so their history has been mostly pieced together from archaeological records and the writings of other ancient peoples.
...
The findings have powerful cultural implications, Doumet-Serhal said. In a country struggling with the ramifications of war and a society fiercely divided along political and sectarian lines, religious groups have often looked to an uncertain history for their identities.

“When Lebanon started in 1929,” Doumet-Serhal said, “the Christians said, ‘We are Phoenician.’ The Muslims didn’t accept that and they said, ‘No, we are Arab.’”

But from this work comes a message of unity. “We all belong to the same people,” Doumet-Serhal said. “We have always had a difficult past … but we have a shared heritage we have to preserve.”

[heydaralon]

The DNA of ancient Canaanites lives on in modern-day Lebanese, genetic analysis shows

The Canaanites lived at the crossroads of the ancient world. They experienced wars, conquests and occupations for millennia, and as a result evolutionary geneticists expected that their DNA would become substantially mixed with incoming populations.

Astonishingly, new genetic analysis shows that scientists were wrong. According to a new study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, today’s Lebanese share a whopping 93% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites.

The study also found that the Bronze Age inhabitants of Sidon, a major Canaanite city-state in modern-day Lebanon, have the same genetic profile as people living 300 to 800 years earlier in present-day Jordan.

Later known as Phoenicians, the Canaanites have a murky past. Nearly all of their own records have been destroyed over the centuries, so their history has been mostly pieced together from archaeological records and the writings of other ancient peoples.
...
The findings have powerful cultural implications, Doumet-Serhal said. In a country struggling with the ramifications of war and a society fiercely divided along political and sectarian lines, religious groups have often looked to an uncertain history for their identities.

“When Lebanon started in 1929,” Doumet-Serhal said, “the Christians said, ‘We are Phoenician.’ The Muslims didn’t accept that and they said, ‘No, we are Arab.’”

But from this work comes a message of unity. “We all belong to the same people,” Doumet-Serhal said. “We have always had a difficult past … but we have a shared heritage we have to preserve.”

very cool!

[Okeefenokee]

Don't tell the Israelites.

[heydaralon]

Don't tell the Israelites.

hmm. Maybe thats why the Israelis and Lebanese hate eachother so much.

[BjornP]

Don't tell the Israelites.

hmm. Maybe thats why the Israelis and Lebanese hate eachother so much.

The Lebanese and the Italians seem fine, however.